Baseball: Newman tops Rock Falls to win fourth straight regional title

STERLING – Rock Falls scored first in Saturday morning’s Class 2A Newman Regional championship game. The host Comets had the answer.

Newman used a three-run second inning to take the lead, then tacked on two late insurance runs in a 6-2 win over the Rockets to claim its fourth straight regional title and fifth in the last six seasons – and its first in Class 2A since 2010.

“It’s just as special today as it was for the first one, especially the last game for me and Isaiah [Williams] being here at home,” said Newman senior Brendan Tunink, who won regional titles in all four of his varsity seasons. “We also wanted to show that we can also win in 2A, not just 1A. That was really special too.”

[ Photos from 2A Newman Regional final baseball, Rock Falls vs. Newman ]

Tunink had three singles, three RBIs, and also recorded the final nine outs to earn the save for starter Garet Wolfe. Entering with runners on second and third and nobody out in the top of the fifth after Rock Falls (16-13) had cut the deficit to 4-2, Tunink got three outs in 10 pitches, then worked 1-2-3 innings in the final two frames – including against the top of the order in the seventh – to finish off the win. He struck out six of the nine batters he faced.

“It definitely feels really nice to get back on the mound, especially in my last game here at home,” Tunink said. “It was cool to be on the mound for my last inning ever here at this field, it just felt awesome.”

“When they had runners on, we just pulled through,” catcher Daniel Kelly said. “Our pitchers were hitting their spots; Garet did a good job settling in the second through fourth innings, then they just got to him, which happens sometimes. Then Brendan came in and shut them down. It was good to see him back on the mound again, and it’s always fun to catch him.”

“I thought we were going to be able to get a few more runs there, but unfortunately after we got one, Brendan came in and shut us down,” Rock Falls senior Carter Schueler said. “I thought that [fifth] inning would be the one where we could at least make it a one-run game or maybe tie it, but Brendan came in and was just dominating at the end.”

The Rockets got an RBI grounder from Carter Schueler in the first inning to drive in Austin Castaneda to take a 1-0 lead just one out into the game. But Newman (22-4-1) answered in the bottom of the inning when Daniel Kelly ripped a two-out RBI single to right to score Tunink.

The Comets took the lead in the second, as Joe Oswalt, Liam Nicklaus and Garret Matznick drew consecutive one-out walks to load the bases for Tunink. The Notre Dame recruit followed with a two-run single to right to drive in Oswalt and Nicklaus, then Ashton Miner beat out a potential double-play grounder to plate Matznick for a 4-1 lead.

“That was a ‘shine.’ Our offense started to shine right there, swung the bats, got good base hits, stole bases, made the defense work. It all came together right there,” Oswalt said.

“I think that put the pressure on them, and with how we played defense today, I think we felt good about where we were with that lead,” Kelly added. “It was huge to completely turn the momentum of the game. … We have a lot of experience with postseason pressure, so we’ve been in these situations before and just know not to panic because we feel like we can come back and get to the other team.”

Schueler settled in and found his rhythm after that, allowing just two baserunners over the next three innings. He finished with four strikeouts and five walks, but four of those walks came around to score.

“I was just trying to throw strikes and let my defense work,” Schueler said. “The last few games, we’ve been making unbelievable plays in the field … and I was just trying to get my defense more involved. Newman just hit the ball in the right spot today, and they did their job.”

But the Rock Falls offense couldn’t get anything going as Wolfe also settled in. He allowed two earned runs and four hits in four-plus innings, striking out five and walking four.

“I had some butterflies in the first inning, and I didn’t really have my best stuff,” Wolfe said. “You can’t always have all your pitchers or hit every spot on the plate when you want to, but a good pitcher is someone who can battle through when you don’t have much.

“Getting the lead was huge, because you just go back on the mound with confidence to be able to know you’ve got a good offense that’s going to put up runs for you, and then a good defense behind you. We have a very good defense, and it’s really comforting to rely on them; it allows me to throw the ball over the plate and know they’re going to make the plays behind me.”

The momentum looked like it would swing in the top of the fifth, as Castaneda led off with a double, went to third on an errant pickoff throw, then scored when ball four to Carter Hunter got away for a wild pitch. Schueler then followed with a double of his own to put runners on second and third with nobody out.

Tunink got the call to the mound, and he proceeded to shut down the Rockets from there to preserve the win for Wolfe.

“When I led off with the double and scored and then Carter doubled, before that inning in the field I said, ‘If we get these three outs right here, the momentum changes,’ and we did that. Then we come up and get that momentum, but they bring Brendan in and he just shut us down,” Castaneda said. “Give credit to him, because he’s pretty good, but that was the momentum right there. The two doubles were huge for us, and we had it going for a second, but then they kind of stopped us.”

“We felt we could hold them once we got the lead. I knew I was going to come in later in the game, so we knew if we could hold them off for a while, we could get them at the end,” Tunink said. “Having insurance runs definitely helped a lot.”

Those came in the bottom of the sixth when Oswalt singled with one out, went to second on Nicklaus’ sacrifice bunt, then went to third and scored on a pair of wild pitches. Matznick drew a two-out walk, and after going to second on the wld pitch that Oswalt scored on, he stole third and scored on Tunink’s RBI single up the middle.

“Just our consistency is key. We’ve been attacking early in every at-bat, and also being patient when we need to,” Oswalt said. “Myself, I got down 0-2 in my last at-bat and I realized that I just needed to swing the bat, put the ball in play and make the defense make the play. We just knew we had to do anything to get on base, and then … it’s just moving the baserunners over and getting runs in.”

Oswalt finished 2 for 2 with a pair of runs scored. Matznick also scored twice, and Miner and Kelly drove in runs for the Comets.

“It’s definitely nice to see everybody contributing now that we’re into the postseason,” Tunink said. “We know we’ll need it throughout the postseason, and just seeing everyone know what to do in what situations and be able to come through is really awesome.”

Castaneda scored both runs for the Rockets, who finished 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and just couldn’t get that clutch hit to get over the hump.

“I thought the game came down to the first three innings, when we had chances to get to five or six runs and not be stuck at one, and we didn’t get a ball in play,” Rock Falls coach Donnie Chappell said. “There were some big at-bats in the first few innings that we didn’t come through with, and then four of their six runs that scored reached on walks. We’ve just got to do those things better.

“But at the end of the day, we just had to hit. We played good defense and Carter pitched great. We’ve just got to find ways to get some hits with guys in scoring position.”